An asymptotic relationship between Lane-Emden systems and the 1-bilaplacian equation

Consider the following Lane-Emden system with Dirichlet boundary conditions: $$-\Delta U = |V|^{\beta-1}V,\ -\Delta V = |U|^{\alpha-1}U \text{ in }\Omega,\qquad U=V= 0 \text{ on }\partial \Omega,$$ in a bounded domain $\Omega$, for $(\alpha,\beta)$ subcritical. We study the asymptotic behavior of least-energy solutions when $\beta\to \infty$, for any fixed $\alpha$ which, in the case $N\geq 3$, is smaller than $2/(N-2)$. We show that these solutions converge to least-energy solutions of a semilinear equation involving the 1-bilaplacian operator, establishing a new relationship between these objects. As a corollary, we deduce the asymptotic behavior of solutions to $p$-bilaplacian Lane-Emden equations as the power in the nonlinearity goes to infinity. For the proof, we rely on the reduction by inversion method and on tools from nonsmooth analysis, considering an auxiliary nonlinear eigenvalue problem. We characterize its value in terms of the Green function, and prove a Faber-Krahn type result. In the case of a ball, we can characterize explicitly the eigenvalue, as well as the limit profile of least-energy solutions to the system as $\beta\to\infty$.